Hawaiian Islands / Sandwich Islands
1784, first edition atlas from Captain Cook's Third Voyage
Copper plate engraving by John Webber
Archival mat: 24 × 20 in. (61 × 50.8 cm)
Provenance: Randy Nagatani, Honolulu, HI; Lahaina Printsellers, Maui, HI
This copper plate engraving by John Webber depicts a man of the Sandwich Islands wearing a mask, from the first edition atlas of Captain Cook's third and final voyage, published in 1784. Webber served as the official artist on the expedition and was present at Cook's death in Hawai'i in 1779; his drawings, engraved under his supervision for the Admiralty's official publication, became the primary visual record through which European audiences first encountered the Hawaiian Islands. The masked figure reflects the expedition's documentation of Hawaiian ceremonial dress and the interpretive challenges that voyage artists faced when recording unfamiliar forms of appearance.
The archival mat gives the plate a substantial formal presence appropriate to its scale as a Cook voyage engraving. Webber's work is valued both for its direct connection to the voyage publications and for the enduring influence those images had on European knowledge of Hawai'i. The Randy Nagatani and Lahaina Printsellers provenance places the print within a documented chain of Hawaiian collecting.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
Hawaiian Islands / Sandwich Islands
1784, first edition atlas from Captain Cook's Third Voyage
Copper plate engraving by John Webber
Archival mat: 24 × 20 in. (61 × 50.8 cm)
Provenance: Randy Nagatani, Honolulu, HI; Lahaina Printsellers, Maui, HI
This copper plate engraving by John Webber depicts a man of the Sandwich Islands wearing a mask, from the first edition atlas of Captain Cook's third and final voyage, published in 1784. Webber served as the official artist on the expedition and was present at Cook's death in Hawai'i in 1779; his drawings, engraved under his supervision for the Admiralty's official publication, became the primary visual record through which European audiences first encountered the Hawaiian Islands. The masked figure reflects the expedition's documentation of Hawaiian ceremonial dress and the interpretive challenges that voyage artists faced when recording unfamiliar forms of appearance.
The archival mat gives the plate a substantial formal presence appropriate to its scale as a Cook voyage engraving. Webber's work is valued both for its direct connection to the voyage publications and for the enduring influence those images had on European knowledge of Hawai'i. The Randy Nagatani and Lahaina Printsellers provenance places the print within a documented chain of Hawaiian collecting.
We ship free anywhere in the world, fully insured, packed by hand.
